FLORIDA: Pakistan all-rounder Imad Wasim held a press conference ahead of their last match of the T20 World Cup 2024 against Ireland where he took responsibility for losing against India as he couldn’t execute the plans probably.
Pakistan were knocked out of the T20 World Cup after the match between the United States (USA) and Ireland in Florida was washed out and the home side propelled to the Super 8.
Imad stated that the plan against India was to take the game deep as the New York pitch was not very easy to bat on. He admitted that he failed to execute the plans properly.
"Our game plan [against India] was to take the chase deep. The wicket was tough to bat on. I let the team down because usually when I go in these situations, I stay very calm and finish the job. Finishing this chase was my job which I couldn't do, and I am very hurt by that. But this is life, sometimes you make mistakes. I believe my planning was right but the execution wasn't good,” Imad said.
The all-rounder then added that Pakistan is way behind other teams as the Green Shirts couldn’t change their mindset.
“In my opinion, the reason for our defeat [In the World Cup] was our mindset. We need to take the fear of failure out of our minds and try something new. It is all about mindset, other teams have also changed their thinking, we are behind them because we didn’t change our way of thinking,” he added.
Imad was then asked if big changes are needed in the team or the basics are there to which he replied that it is not his domain but “drastic” changes are required right now.
"It's not my domain but I think there need to be changes. There should be a drastic change so that we can move forward and fight with world cricket in the way that cricket is played now,” the all-rounder added.
USA's game against Ireland couldn't take place due to the wet outfield and eventually Pakistan were out of the competition.
"You can't control weather. It was raining for the last week, and I've never seen rain in my life like that, so you can't blame the groundsmen or ICC. It was tough that it was washed out but we shouldn't have let this happen - we should have won both our games to be in a safe zone but unfortunately that didn't happen," he concluded.
Pakistan will play their last game against Ireland on Sunday in Fort Lauderhill, Florida.
Faizan Lakhani Faizan Lakhani is Deputy Editor (Sports) at Geo News.
